After receiving more than 6,000 applications for admission this year, Bowdoin's Office of Admissions accepted only 18.4 percent of applicants for the Class of 2012.
"It was shockingly hard to get in," said Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William Shain.
The College admitted 1,110 of 6,021 applicants this year, figures that include early decision statistics. This represents a slightly more competitive admissions cycle than last year, when 18.5 percent of applicants—or 1,105 of 5,961 students—were offered a place in the Class of 2011.
The College also admitted a record number of students of color this year, accepting 406 students of color, compared to last year's figure of 386. The percent of admits from public schools this year also increased slightly, to 56.7, compared to last year's 55.5 percent.
The College accepted an equal number (555) of men and women this year. Last year, Bowdoin admitted 573 men and 532 women, anticipating a higher yield from women.
"We expect the gender balance in the entering class to be approximately 50-50," Shain said. "But that doesn't mean it couldn't be 47-53, depending on what choices admitted students make."
Shain added that the College could use the waiting list to reduce any gender imbalance.
The number of admitted international students also increased this year, to 81 from last year's 57. Applicants from 35 countries were admitted, nine more countries than there were last year.
But while Shain was proud of the anticipated international presence in next year's first-year class, he also pointed out that greater numbers of this year's accepted class are native Mainers.
This year, the College admitted 98 Maine students, while it accepted 95 last year.
Included in those numbers, 21 of this year's Maine admits were accepted early, contrasted with only 14 last year.
Shain stressed the importance of having students from Maine at the College.
"It's our heritage," Shain said. "A college that doesn't exist in its place has no personality."
The 18.4 percent figure is subject to change if Bowdoin admits students from its waiting list. Shain estimated that the College wait-listed over 800 applicants.
"I'd prefer to do less wait list, but I have to maintain the tradition of what we've always done," Shain said, adding that other NESCAC schools also wait-list more students than necessary.
Still, Shain said that the waiting list is an important aspect of the admissions process.
"You wait-list people, all kinds of stuff comes in," Shain said. "And sometimes the people you thought were the bottom of the waiting list actually turn out to be the top."
Shain said that predicting yield this year is "really complicated," pointing out "two horses riding in different directions."
On the one hand, Bowdoin's new no-loan policy may increase the yield. But Shain also said that because of the quality of this year's applicants, accepted students may have offers at other schools.
"The credentials of this admitted group is the strongest we've ever done," he said. "People with the strongest academic records also have the most choices."
Shain said that Harvard and Princeton's decisions to end early admissions may have contributed to the stronger applicant pool.
"I honestly don't know why the pool would get stronger in a year when applications stayed the same," he said.
In 2007, the College accepted 34 students off the waiting list, and 10, 20, 56, and 30 in the preceding years. However, Shain said that he expects a relatively high number of students admitted from the waiting list this year.
"The best guess from most people this year is that there will be more waiting list admission than has been typically been true, because yield is hard for everybody to predict," he said.
Colby's mailing date admission rate this year was 30.5 percent, while Bates's was 28.9 percent. Middlebury's admission rate dropped considerably from last year's 20.6 percent to 18.3 percent this year.
Williams and Amherst admitted 16.3 and 14.2 percent of applicants this year, respectively.